Lappeenranta (or Villmanstrand in Swedish) is a city and municipality that resides on the shore of the lake Saimaa in South-Eastern Finland, about 30 km from the Russian border. It belongs to the province of Southern Finland and the region of South Karelia. With 59,000 inhabitants (December 31, 2004) Lappeenranta is the eleventh-largest city of Finland.

Lappeenranta is known as a summer city, mostly due to its closeness to the lake Saimaa. In addition, its inland location means that summers tend to be warmer and winters colder than in the shore parts of the country.
Lappeenranta, however, does have a healthy winter tourism industry. Various cabins around Lake Saimaa, as well as numerous snowmobile, skiing and sledding tracks draw a fair number of winter visitors.
The proximity of the Russian border is increasingly visible in the number of Russian tourists visiting the city. In fact, Saint Petersburg of Russia is closer (211 km) to Lappeenranta than Helsinki, the capital of Finland (221 km). Unusually for Finland, the second language spoken by many local residents is Russian. The presence of Russians is obvious with many Russian registered cars on the streets and Cyrillic signs in shops.

Good places and events to visit are

• The old fortress, with a number of museums, cafés and the oldest Orthodox church in Finland.
  
• The harbour area, with cruises to Vyborg and the nearby Saimaa Canal.
  
• The central market place, where you can enjoy the local specialities - meat pies known as "Atomi" (atom) or "Vety" (hydrogen).
  
• The Night of The Fort, a two-day cultural festival in early August.
  
• The annual Lappeenranta National Singing Contest.
  
• The "Huvisatama" -only in summers of course, offers a wide variety of amusement to everybody.